Linkee-poo is surfing the minefields of work on a Friday

A "My, is that a windturbine in your pocket or are you Congressman Weiner?" update (about the wind turbine at Lincoln Electric, not Rep. Weiner).

Selling fiction is not for wimps by Jay Lake hosted over a Shimmer. Very true. Even the part about "not every writer is the same and what worked for me may not for you" (paraphrased, in other words, YMMV). And I'll go a little father about his commentary on Heinlein's 3rd rule, "You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order." This worked for Bob because at the time he was writing editors had time to be editors (instead of acquisitions, paperwork, publishers, layout keyliners, and chief bottle-washers on Tuesdays like they are now). In his day, an editor had the time to work with an author they found promising. That is no longer the case. Your story needs to be as perfect as you can get it (that's a moving target, BTW, hopefully on the positive side). Don't give an editor the opportunity to reject your great story because of sloppy writing or slow start (once you have a readership, that can change, a little, you can be more "individualistic", you still have to have a great story).

Macmillan becomes it's own distributor. Huhn. Well that's interesting. You may remember my previous arguments about how distribution agreements (and business processes) were killing book sales. This, if I'm reading it correctly, constitutes a sea change. With B&N struggling (recently purchased, BTW), I wonder if such a deal with Ingram is already in the works here in the US (the difference is, Ingram is still in good fiscal shape, IIRC).

JABberwocky has two of their agents open to queries. Jabberwocky represents some kickin' people, like Tobias Buckell (how I first heard of them). (Grokked from Miranda Suri). Damn it, I was supposed to be done with edits and have the synopsis and query letter done by now. Oh, Fortuna!

Jeff VanderMeer with interview questions he never wants to be asked again. Good luck with that, Jeff.

Jim Hines creates a scale for Genre Bashing Dumbassery.

Nathan has also hit the wall and needs your help with coming up with a catch phrase. What is it with my blogger friends lately? "Yeah, yeah," I can hear you say, "WTF is up with all these Linkee-poo posts instead of real content on your blog?" To which I can only reply, "Shut up," in a whiny voice.

Louis CK on Conan with everything is amazing and nobody is happy. A little perspective from a man of a certain age. And get offa my lawn! You dang kids. (pointed to by a coworker)